Oneawa Hills – November 30, 2011

I haven’t done an intermediate hike in a long time. The last one was Kahana Valley which was during the summer of 2011. Recently I’ve done super easy hikes or difficult hikes. Enter the Oneawa Hills. This hike holds many names; one name is Kokokahi Ridge, the other is Kawa’ewa’e, and of course the last one is called the Oneawa Hills. I like Oneawa Hills better, it sounds like the Hawaiian cousin to the Hollywood Hills.

Sean and I planned this hike one month ago and the only problem was to find time to hike it. Today was the day. We met at the Kaneohe Bayview Golf Course because I knew it would be a good place to meet. The parking lot is huge. From the golf course, Sean followed me to Lipalu Street. I parked my car on the street and hopped in Sean’s Jeep. He drove us to Kokokahi place. There was no parking near the trailhead, so he parked about ¼ mile from the trailhead.

The trailhead is at the Friendship Garden. I must say that the trail is beautiful, very lush with greenery. Before the hike, I printed out a map of the Friendship Garden trail. The problem was that the hike goes past the Friendship Garden trail and continues onto Kokokahi ridge. The map showed two loops which created the Friendship Garden, so our plan was to stay left and to make sure we were walking up the mountain to gain the crest of the ridge. That is what we did, and it worked to perfection. In about 10 minutes of uphill hiking with some huffing and puffing, we gained the ridge and the Oneawa Hills began.

We walked over a bunch of rolling hills, passing a cell phone tower along the way. The trail was well marked with orange and pink ribbons. After 1 hour, the rains began to fall. At this point, the hike was at its climax. To the left is Kapaa Quarry with its industrial area and manmade lake. The manmade lake is the showcase of the hike, it does not disappoint. It’s freakin’ huge. The water is a shade of green-blue which looks artificial. Technically speaking, the lake is artificial, but it’s a work of art. At the quarry, workers use the rock to make concrete. Another surprise we encountered was workers blowing up the side of the mountain. What a great job! To use TNT to blow things up, every little boy dreams. We heard an explosion and saw a huge cloud of dirt. That was cool!

After admiring the quarry, we encountered one last peak before heading down the mountain. Going down is complicated because of the many junctions. Luckily, there were ribbons to assist. The walk down took a little less than one hour. We ended up on Lipalu Street, near a Hawaiian Cemetery and in my orange car. The hike took about 2 hours. It’s a perfect intermediate hike.